


Time Flies Like a River (Neither Has Wings)

by misura



Category: Justice League (2017)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-22 06:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17054783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: In which Barry deals with a mild case of amnesia in a very mature and reasonable way.





	Time Flies Like a River (Neither Has Wings)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Val_Creative](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/gifts).



Barry loses his memory after a close encounter with a wall. It's no big thing, really. Doesn't even hurt that much, and besides (he tells himself) he remembers all the _important_ stuff.

With a bit of help, admittedly, but still.

Mom murdered, check. Dad in prison after a botched investigation into said murder, check. The basics.

"Thanks, man. I really appreciate you doing this," Barry says. His head hurts, but he knows that if he asks for an aspirin or something, Victor's going to tell him to get it checked out, and Barry's fine, all right? He doesn't need people to make a fuss. He's _fine_.

Victor shrugs. "No problem. I still think you're - huh."

'Huh' is an _excellent _way to describe it, Barry thinks. Really, it's great. Covers all the meanings.__

__"Is that - " Barry asks, just to check._ _

__"Wonder how I missed _that_ happening," Victor says._ _

__"Oh, good." Barry decides that 'relieved' is definitely what he's going to go with here. The big freak-out can wait until later. "So you didn't know about this either."_ _

__Victor gives him a look and says, "Dude."_ _

__They watch the scene play out a few more times before Victor realizes what he's doing and Barry remembers that he was going to go and let himself have a nice freak-out somewhere private._ _

__

__"Look, it's not like I lost my _whole_ memory. Only a tiny, tiny part of it." Barry thinks that sounds like a perfectly reasonable explanation. Of course, he's a perfectly reasonable guy - and pretty attractive, too, if he does say so himself. A real stunner, even. So, honestly, it's not that far outside the realm of possibilities that someone - that a very specific, very _rich_ someone would --_ _

__"Barry?" Bruce looks half-surprised and half-worried. "What are you doing in my bedroom?"_ _

__Barry decides not to go with the truth. Besides, Bruce wondering what Barry's doing in his bedroom seems to provide a pretty definite answer to the question of whether or not their relationship has gone beyond 'hot and heavy make-outs in the Bat Cave'._ _

__" _Your_ bedroom?" he says. "Whoops. Sorry. Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere."_ _

__Bruce gives him a look. Barry doesn't think it's the kind of look people refer to as 'bedroom eyes', or even 'make-out eyes', assuming such a thing exists. (Maybe? Humans are weird, and Bruce is, like, extra weird. Arthur may be kind of scary sometimes, but it's not like he's wrong about _that_.)_ _

__"The suits didn't clue you in?" Bruce asks._ _

__"Hey!" Barry says. "I can rock a suit and tie as much as the next dude, all right? And I resent - no, I _deeply_ resent the implication that I can't. Because I can. I absolutely rock in a suit."_ _

__"I meant the - " Bruce gestures._ _

__Barry decides to stick to his guns. Not that he has any _actual_ guns, but, you know. His _proverbial_ guns. "I can also totally rock the bat suit. I'd make a great bat."_ _

__Bruce opens and closes his mouth a few times. Then he says, "Okay, fine. So hey, I was watching the footage of that incident the other day, and you seemed to hit that wall pretty hard. You sure you all right?"_ _

__"I'm super!" Barry gives Bruce a thumbs-up, then proves his point by high-tailing it out of there. You know, because he's totally fine and everything._ _

__

__Alfred has kindly given him a keycard for the pantry, so Barry helps himself to some snacks and finds a quiet place to dig in and freak out._ _

__If it happens to be the roof, that's _his_ business, isn't it? It's a perfectly nice roof. Very quiet. Hardly any pigeons. There might be rain later, but right now, it's dry._ _

__So of course he's only been there for, like, half a minute before Clark shows up. (Well, okay, maybe more like half an hour. Time's funny like that.)_ _

__"You're super?" Clark asks. If Bruce is kind of attractive in a rich-guy-who's-secretly-Batman kind of way, Clark is - well, he's Superman. Barry doesn't think there's a lot of people who don't have at least a tiny bit of a crush on Superman. Anyone who doesn't is probably either in denial, lying or evil. Or Victor, but then, Victor's Victor._ _

__But right now, Barry's got Clark, floating in front of him, red cloak and S-that's-really-a-river on his chest and all. It makes it kind of hard to think about other things._ _

__Clark smiling at him doesn't help. Like, _at all_._ _

__"Um," Barry says. "I'm sorry?"_ _

__Clark smiles a bit wider. "Don't worry. It's not like I own the copyright on the word or anything. I just wanted to see if everything was all right."_ _

__"Well." Barry thinks that he needs right now is a distraction. Also, still, an aspirin, but you know what, he bets that once he's done eating, he'll feel lots better. Hunger can give you headaches, right? So it's probably that. Nothing to do with that wall that fell on him. "Bruce was - I worry about that guy, you know. I really do." He tries to sound convincing._ _

__Going by Clark's expression, it works. Barry immediately feels kind of guilty, which is silly. After all, Bruce should be thrilled to have Clark worry about him. Barry knows _he'd_ be, except not really, because he's _fine_._ _

__Clark stops floating and grabs a can of soda like they've done this before. Like this is normal._ _

__"Bruce can be a bit of an idiot sometimes."_ _

__"Exactly," Barry says. "That's exactly what I'm talking about."_ _

__"All right." Clark puts down the can of soda. "I'll take care of it."_ _

__And then he leans in closer, and Barry thinks _'what's happening, what's he going to do, oh God, he's noticed I have a head injury and he's going to -__ _

__

__"Dude," Victor says. "Slow down."_ _

__It's ten seconds, or maybe ten minutes later, but who's counting, right? "I'm not - " Barry says. "I'm right here." He's not sure if he'd be able to do his speed thing even if the building collapsed right now. (Well, yes, he would. He's awesome that way. And in other ways, maybe?)_ _

__"So you - what? Made out with Bruce in the lab, then kissed his boyfriend on the roof?" Victor shakes his head. "Damn. And I thought _my_ situation was messed up."_ _

__Part of Barry wants to ask about Victor's situation (hooking up with Lois Lane and/or Alfred by the pool and with Arthur _inside_ the pool? That does sound kind of messed up. Also, really, _really_ unlikely.)_ _

__"You don't know that," Barry says. "You don't know that they're - " Barry's pretty sure he'd have noticed something like _that_ going on. Like, Bruce and Clark, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. That's not the sort of thing he'd have missed._ _

__Victor scowls at him. "You mean _you_ don't remember. Man, you should go see a doctor."_ _

__"Can't you like - " Barry flaps his hands._ _

__"Fly? I can do that, no problem. Not sure how it's going to help."_ _

__Barry rolls his eyes. "I meant scan me. But never mind. Look, it's only - what, a couple of weeks? Months, at most. And I read up on all the mission files."_ _

__"And you're _fine_ , aren't you?" Victor shakes his head. "Idiot."_ _

__"I _am_ fine," Barry insists. "I need to figure some stuff out, is all."_ _

__

__In the end, he talks Victor into letting him have the file of him and Bruce. Barry watches it in his bedroom. Not like that, of course - he's not watching it _naked_ , or anything, it's a video of _himself_ , after all, and what sort of weirdo would get off on -_ _

__All right, so he's lying in bed and everything, but that's because that way, if someone walks in, he can hide it real quick. It's a safety measure, that's all._ _

__He wonders if Bruce is a better kisser than Clark. It seems impossible. Clark is Superman, after all, and you can't get better than Superman, right?_ _

__Barry-on-the-video looks pretty enthusiastic, even so. Pretty into it. So does Bruce-on-the-video. Barry figures that makes sense, though, given that Barry's sure _he's_ a good kisser. So maybe he's not super-experienced or anything. Kissing people's like riding a bike, isn't it? You figure it out once, and you're set. You can get up on one and ride it the rest of your life._ _

__And the lab's not really a _romantic_ type of place. The roof, now - the roof's good. You can watch the sunset from the roof, wrapped in some blankets, with Clark there to provide some extra body heat and Bruce sleepily insisting that he's staying awake just fine, damn it._ _

__You can feel the way your body's a tiny bit sore from the night before, from having Clark and Bruce both -_ _

__"We need to talk," Bruce says._ _

__Barry wastes a couple of seconds wondering how Bruce has managed to sneak up on him, then another couple of seconds realizing where his hands are, what they're doing. "Um. Can this wait?"_ _

__Bruce snatches Barry's iphone, which is definitely not okay._ _

__"Look," Barry says. It's kind of hard to separate the Bruce from his ... memories? fantasies? from the one who's standing in his bedroom, glowering._ _

__It doesn't really help that Barry's - well, he's not _kinky_ or anything, more like a pretty vanilla type of guy, only if Bruce wanted to growl at him a bit more while they were both naked, and maybe tie him up just a little bit, Barry figures that he'd maybe be all right with that._ _

__"Look," Barry repeats._ _

__"I _am_ looking," Bruce says, which is true. At Barry's iphone, that is. "Jesus, Barry."_ _

__Barry has a sudden vision of Bruce saying _'Jesus, Clark'_ in an entirely different tone of voice._ _

__"I can explain," he says._ _

__"You can?" Bruce asks. "Really? Well. This should be good."_ _

__"He hit his head and got a mild case of amnesia," Clark says, because as previously proven, Clark hears everything and also has, like, either the worst or the best sense of dramatic timing ever. "Hello, Barry."_ _

__"Yeah," Barry says. "Hi."_ _

__"Would you like to finish ... doing what you were doing before we talk about this?" Clark asks. "As you pointed out yourself, Bruce can be a bit of an idiot about this sort of thing. He worries."_ _

__Bruce looks deeply annoyed._ _

__"And so do I," Clark adds._ _

__"Let me just wash my hands real quick and maybe grab a shower or something," Barry says._ _

__"Might want to make it a cold one."_ _

__

__"You know, if this is what you meant by talking, I could also _not_ have taken a cold shower."_ _

__Bruce groans. There's a subtle difference between Bruce groaning and Bruce growling, and Barry thinks he's getting the hang of telling which is which, and how to respond to each._ _

__"Bruce likes watching you in the shower," Clark says. "It's one of his favorite - "_ _

__Barry's pretty sure that poking Clark's kind of like poking a rock or something. A warm rock. A hot rock that feels really nice, except when you poke it._ _

__"There's a camera in my shower?" Barry asks, because he's not - okay, he might be sort of all right with the idea of being watched, but he'd kind of like to know about it. That seems fair, doesn't it?_ _

__Bruce - yup, still groaning. "There's no camera in your shower. Jesus, Barry. What sort of guy do you think I am?"_ _

__"You made a video for him," Clark says. "I think it was to celebrate an anniversary of some kind. You don't remember?"_ _

__"Oh, hey, now that you mention it, it's starting to come back to me." Well, not really, but where's the harm in a little white lie?_ _

__Other than having Clark look at him like Barry's just kicked a puppy or something._ _

__"I - " Barry says. "I'm sorry? I shouldn't have - I see now that what I did was wrong. Please don't stop having sex with me? I promise to be good from now on. Well, better, because honestly, I think I've been pretty good already, if we're talking about saving people and stuff, which maybe we're not, but I think at the very least that should factor into any decision you're going to make."_ _

__Bruce sighs. "You're an idiot."_ _

__"Pot calling the kettle," Clark says._ _

__"You think we should let him to talk to us like that?" Bruce asks._ _

__Barry thinks that Clark can pretty much do or say whatever he wants to Barry. It's all good, as far as Barry's concerned. On the other hand, Barry figures this is pretty much like an olive branch._ _

__"No way, man. We should definitely do something. Um. Ideas? I'm wide open here."_ _

__"You think I can't take on the two of you at once, you'd better think again."_ _


End file.
